“Excuse me, I’m looking for Gail Boyce.”
The woman frowned. “You’re not here about that shark attack, are you?”
“Ah, yeah. Is Ms. Boyce here?”
“I’m Gail Boyce and I was not on the beach that day. Who are you anyway?” The woman’s hostility took Lainie by surprise.
“Detective Lainie Jensen.” She showed the woman her ID. Why was she so upset?
“That’s not a Hawaii ID.”
“No, it’s not. But the missing woman is my sister, so the detectives here gave me some leeway.”
The woman’s demeanor softened. “Oh, I’m sorry. But some guy was just here asking me if I was at the beach when the shark attack happened. I don’t go to the beach.”
“Some guy? A police officer?”
She shook her head, clearly frustrated. “I don’t know, it caught me off balance, I didn’t ask. And now here you are. Am I in danger?”
“I don’t believe so. Someone, claiming to be you, was on the beach yelling shark that day. I got your information from the police report.”
“Someone with the same name? It wasn’t me.”
Lainie showed her what she’d put in the notes app on her phone. “Is this your information?”
Profound confusion settled on the woman’s face as her brow creased. “Well, it’s the phone number and address here. And my home address.” Her face scrunched into an irritated frown. “I don’t go to the beach. Why is someone impersonating me?”
Lainie was at a loss. Why indeed? “I’m not sure. You might know the woman. I’ll pull up the newsclip where I believe she’s the one pointing to where the shark was.”
Lainie took a few minutes to find the newsclip on her phone, then she showed it to Boyce.
The woman squinted as she watched. “She doesn’t look at the camera. I just can’t place the voice.”
“Maybe you know her?”
“I’m not sure about that. Why would she give the police my name and address?”
Lainie’s shoulders tightened with stress. What was going on?
“I’d like to know the answer to that as well. I’ll let Detective Yamada know that someone was lying that day and pretending to be you. Sorry to have bothered you.”
“And I’m sorry about your sister.”
Was Kimo Alonzo fake as well? Lainie thought back to her time in uniform, taking down witness information. Generally, you trusted witnesses. They weren’t suspects—usually. And if they were describing a shark attack, there was no crime involved. An officer would have no reason on the face of it to doubt a person who was ostensibly trying to be a helpful witness.
The woman was at the beach—Lainie could see the scenario in her mind’s eye.“I’m sorry, Officer. I don’t have my ID. But I can give you my information.”
He’d write it all down, and it would be up to the detectives to recontact if needed.
The officer trusted that the woman was not lying. After all, it was a local address: easy enough to check. If she intentionally misidentified herself, it was a good bet she was long gone. She’d have to be in case there was any follow-up, like Lainie was doing.
Hopefully, Alonzo was the real deal. His residence was about six or seven miles up the hill from the resort where Lainie was staying. It was late afternoon, and no one answered her knock.
She stepped back and studied the area. Alonzo lived in a large, spread-out condo complex. She heard kids playing behind the condo unit. As she walked toward the back, she saw a golf course there and kids kicking a soccer ball around on the fairway.
There was a hole in the hedges between the condo and the course, and she stepped through it. Lainie guessed golf was done for the day. There was one adult who was coaching the kids. A tall guy she recognized from the newsclip.
Walking toward him, she called out, “Kimo Alonzo?”
